I’ve updated the local chat script to use High Fidelity’s “Messages” object for communications instead of using an external Web server application. As before, chat windows are displayed in both desktop and HMD views. The primary user-visible difference is that chat history from the last 30 minutes is no longer displayed when you log in or visit a domain.

If you install over the top of a previous version you’ll probably want to press the “Reset” button for the “UI depth” Display Output option.

Note that if you switch between direct and extended Rift display modes, you’ll need to restart the Oculus Configuration Utility and the Oculus VR Runtime Service. To restart the Oculus Configuration Utility, right-click the utility’s tray icon and select “Exit”, and start it again from the Windows Start menu. To restart the service, find it in Windows’ Administrative Tools > Services. Or you can reboot your PC.

I can achieve a pretty smooth 75 FPS experience on the Rift if the scene’s not too complex, though only if I have my main monitor set to 120Hz. If I set it to 60Hz I only get a somewhat juddery 65 FPS on the Rift. I haven’t looked into this yet and am keen to hear how other people get on. Note: You can use Ctrl+Shift+1 to display a statistics window in Riftlook.

I developed CtrlAltStudio Viewer as a stop-gap measure to satisfy immediate desires to experience Second Life and OpenSim in virtual reality: stereoscopic 3D was implemented while waiting for the Rift DK1 to be delivered; then DK1 and DK2 support each added when they arrived. Always with the expectation that CtrlAltStudio Viewer will be abandoned when Linden Lab finish their Rift support and other third-party viewers incorporate it.

It’s been quite a long “stop-gap”; much longer than expected! But at last there’s hope that the consumer CV1 Rift will finally be delivered, sometime in Q1 2016. Before that, a Rift SDK 1.0 version is due in December this year. Hopefully, Linden Lab will finish off their Rift support promptly for CV1 when it’s available so that their code can be adopted by other TPVs. Development of CtrlAltStudio Viewer will stop at that time.

In the meantime, I am trying to find time to keep CtrlAltStudio Viewer somewhat up to date. Unfortunately, time is in short supply for me these days. However, I have the code working with SDK 0.6 in direct mode with a basic software cursor. (There’s no hardware cursor in direct mode.) I have a few issues to sort out and will release an alpha as soon as possible, “as is”, to see how people find it. Not polished but should be usable.

After that, I may update to a more recent Firestorm codebase, or perhaps update to SDK 0.7 or even SDK 1.0. It just depends on Oculus and Firestorm updates, people’s needs, and my time availability.

This alpha release of the CtrlAltStudio Viewer updates to the Firestorm 4.6.9 plus hotfix codebase, and the Rift SDK 0.5.0.1. A fix is also provided for left-clicks on objects; though like right-clicks, left-clicks work best with the cursor in the left eye’s view.

Please also note that this alpha requires Rift extended mode and Advanced Lighting Model needs to be turned on.

These and future customizations will be maintained in the new HiFi section of the Web site.

Note: When using these scripts you should normally run them from the URL given rather than download and run a local copy: running them from the URL means that you automatically get the most recent version.